Mobile computing devices, such as mobile phones and personal digital assistants (PDA), have become increasingly popular in recent years. As the devices continue to get smaller, there are increasing limitations in resources such as memory, storage, bandwidth, and battery power. Additionally, more applications now consume increasing levels of such resources. For example, many applications execute recurring tasks such as synchronization with a server requiring frequent radio usage. After the radio on the mobile computing device powers on to send data, the radio takes several seconds to power off (e.g., about 3 seconds on 2.5G networks and about 20 seconds on 3G networks). This radio “tail” absorbs power and diminishes battery life on the mobile computing device. Further, there are other power inefficiencies in spinning up the radio and shutting down the radio.
Connected applications with real-time data push or updates are being widely adopted by mobile users. The applications include electronic mail, personal information management, presence information, and other web applications. The servers push the data in an uncoordinated manner such that battery life on the mobile computing device degrades, negatively affecting the user experience.